A Reply to Mr. Das Samuel and Mr. Makenthiran

By Rajiv

Mr. Das Samuel joins Mr. Makenthiran in animosity and ill will. It
is sad to see grown men so filled with hatred of another people, so
ready to attack and vilify people different to themselves.

Even in Nazi Germany there were many ordinary Germans who could not
see the horrible nature of the Nazis, and who hailed and worshipped
them as heros. Unfortunately, a similar situation can be be found among
the Sri Lankan Tamil community today with resepect to the LTTE, and
Mr. Samuel and Mr. Makenthiran are a part of that crowd. This is not
at all surprising however, considering that disapora Tamil communities
are highly insulated, and rarely mix with other Sri Lankans. Mr Das
Samuel and Mr. Makenthiran both fail to see that it not the Sinhalese,
the Muslims, the Burghers, the Bohras or whomever else that has caused
most harm to the Tamil community over the years. Instead, it is the
LTTE - the self-styled "liberators" of the Tamil people -
that has torn the community to bits, that is trampling on the rights
of the people they are supposed to be fighting for. Each week we hear
of more Tamils being brutally killed in Sri Lanka - not by anyone else
but fellow Tamils themselves. Each month we hear of more Tamil on Tamil
violence among the Sri Lankan Tamil diaspora in Britain and Canada.
And it makes us wonder - who really is destroying whom? It is indeed
something to ponder.

Blinded by the hate of the Sinhalese people in general, and brainwashed
by an irrational hatred of Buddhist Sinhalese, both Mr Das Samuel and
Mr. Makenthiran reveal to Sri Lankans the type of mentality that prevails
among many hardline, chauvinist and racist members of the Sri Lankan
Tamil diaspora. Many of us can see that the "Tamil nationalist
movement" (if it can be called that at all) seems to held together
by a blind but powerful hatred of all non-Tamils, especially of the
Sinhalese. Once the ceasfire agreement was signed, the LTTE as well
as other Tamil fundamentalists were unable to demonise the Sinhalese
as the hated, oopresive "other," and consequently infighting
broke out between Northern Tamils and the Eastern Tamils and it is continuing
to date. So we can see that the "Tamil unity" that the LTTE
and its supporters speak about is only held together by a common hatred
of all non-Tamils, which includes even the Tamil-Speaking Muslims.

It is amusing to see Mr. Das Samuel bash the Sinhalese Buddhists, and
then proceed to pretty much calling them Hindus. The LTTE, as well the
Tamil fundamentalists know quite well that there is much in common between
the Sinhalese Buddhists and the Tamil Hindus, but rather than letting
this be a factor in forming unity, the LTTE propaganda machine pumps
out propaganda against Buddhist Sinhalese - full of bile, acid, and
hatred, and Mr. Das Samuel and Mr. Makenthiran it seems, are only too
happy to gobble up that viciousness and spew it out when they see fit,
in order to harm and cut their Sinhalese enemies. Sri Lankans must remember
here that it was the previous Hindu Affairs Minister the Hon. Thiagarajah
Maheswaran that publicly claimed that over 7000 Hindus had been converted
by various Christian evangelist groups operating in Sri Lanka, and that
these evangelist groups were abusing the poverty and destitution of
many of the Tamil refugees and internally displaced to carry out their
conversion activities. So this is certainly not a matter which is of
concern only to Buddhist Sinhalese as Mr Das Samuel tries to make it
out; it is affecting the Tamil Hindus as well. As one Tamil Hindu journalist
from Batticoloa who was also concerned about unethical conversions said,
it is just that the Tamil Hindus have many other problems to deal with
besides Christian evangelism. Mr. Das Samuel however, would rather use
this as an issue to bash the Buddhists (it is the Tamil nationalist
line after all to hate everything non-Tamil). And it is not surprising
either to see him descend to the puerile "my religion is better
than yours" argument. Personally I would be very happy to see Hinduism
continue to exist for a long long time.

In retrospect, Mr Das Samuel and Mr. Makenthiran have done all Sri
Lankans a favour by giving us a taste of the kind of attitude the Tamil
fundamentalists and the LTTE would have towards all non-Tamils in an
LTTE controlled separate state or ISGA. The hatred in their posts reminds
us that the flames of fundamentalism and racism are burning brightly
among sections of the Tamil diaspora. As such, it would behove us to
be more wary of their activities, even if garbed in silken cloth.